Today’s Odd, Violent, Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
Suzanne Basso was an odd woman by any standard. Massively obese, she was obsessed with everything Irish, though she herself had no Irish blood at all. She spun fanciful stories about herself, such as claiming to be heiress to a Nova Scotia oil fortune. She also had a violent temper and was believed to have had something to do with the death of her husband Carmine Basso.
In 1997, Basso met Louis “Buddy” Musso in New Jersey. Musso was 59, and though he lived independently and worked at a local grocery store, he was mildly mentally retarded and was overly trusting. Basso had little trouble wooing Musso and despite the misgivings of his family and friends, he left New Jersey to travel to Texas with his new girlfriend in June of 1998, believing they would marry. Basso was more interested in Musso’s Social Security checks. She became his representative payee, meaning his checks went directly to her; she cut off all contact with Al Becker, a longtime friend of Musso’s who had been his payee for twenty years, and she dodged attempts by Becker and Musso’s niece to check up on his welfare. She also took out life insurance on Musso, with an extra payout to be received if he died through violent crime.
Suzanne Basso and her victim, Buddy Musso.
Through all this, Musso lived in squalor with Basso and her grown son, James O’Malley, whom it is widely suspected she was having a sexual relationship with. They, along with friend Bernice Ahrens, her son Craig, daughter Hope, and Hope’s fiance Terence Singleton, regularly tortured Musso. He was forced to sit or kneel for hours on a plastic mat, and if he tried to move out of position he was kicked with steel-toed boots, beaten, stomped or burned with cigarettes.
On August 25, 1998, Musso received an especially severe beating, with the overweight Basso jumping on him while he was on all fours. Musso asked for somebody to call an ambulance. Instead, his six tormentors bathed him using a solution of bleach and Pine-Sol and a wire brush. He died during this “bath.” Musso’s body was dumped in a ditch outside Houston, Texas and was found a couple of days later. Every inch of his body was bruised, cut or burned; the medical examiner could not determine which had been the fatal injury. Even his palms and soles were bruised, and he’d suffered a hinge skull fracture, broken ribs, whip marks and burns that appeared to come from a cigarette or a hot poker.
Basso was sentenced to death and was executed by lethal injection on February 5, 2014. she was 59 years old, the same age as her victim.
Culled From: Murderpedia
Submitted by: Aimee
We can argue over whether or not putting Suzanne Basso to death is justice for the death of Buddy Musso, but few would disagree that nothing could ever be adequate retribution for what Musso went through before his death. – Aimee
While it is easy to condemn the actions of Suzanne Basso, you must realize that for 17 years, she was in a family that lived physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse on a daily basis. Both her mother and step-father were the perpetrators . Love was never a word used or practiced in her home. There were seven siblings, and although Suzanne had the greatest impact, they all had varying degrees of problems from such an upbringing. The step-father died in 1969, but the mother died three days after Suzanne. She never felt she did anything wrong, right up until her death. All she wanted was to be on the news. She wanted the world to feel sorry for her when she was half of the problem. No one will ever know the terror and horror that we lived because when you hear abuse, you think of being hit other than the bottom. The abuse was far worse than that. It left physical, emotional and psychological scars that even time cannot diminish.
Awww,so now we are suppose to feel compassion and empathy for this Monster?I my self received emotional,physical and mental abuse with abandonment as well from both parents.I have not ever abused my daughter,mother,or any animals that I took in that needed my help.Get real.There is no punishment that I can conjure that level of abuse and torture.I wonder if your reaction would be swayed if you also had been the subject of someones rage and abuse.
Exactly, there are lots of people who go through horrible experiences in life and don’t turn into a monster. I have no pity for her or her co-conspirators because they knew what they were doing. They chose to pick on a disabled man rather than a normal human. She deserves what she and everyone else had coming.
Actually, I don’t think Pauline was trying to say Suzanne was justified, she was adding context that the abuser was not the only one to blame, and not the only one that should have been punished. (Not that Suzanne WAS punished, but I argue that point elsewhere.)
This story was horrifying, that poor man. Your comment was as equally horrifying? There is not an one justifiable excuse for the pain and abuse she caused. The whole group should have been executed, better yet they should have received the same or worse torture as their victim before being executed!!!!!!!!!!
ummmm, that sill doesn’t make what she did excusable.
Lots of people endure abuse, of a kinds, and don’t go on to maliciously, heartlessly, and disgustingly torture and mruder othe people.
Liberal idiot.
Hi Pauline —
I appreciate the idea of compassion in a world often devoid of it. However,
I knew Buddy, her victim, for years and years. We sang in the St. Theresa’s Catholic Church choir together for four years. He was a lovely man with a generous heart. He had a fantastic, booming laugh, and he was enjoyable and important part of the community. He was fun to be around, and would be the last person you could imagine hitting, never mind torturing. It would have been like hurting a sunny enjoyable 9 year-old boy.
We should work to evadicate abuse, no doubt. Aside from the horror of the abuse itself, it contributes to the twisting of people with already evil tendencies (all abuses people do not become monsters).
She was a monster to cut him out of our community and torture this wonderful and simple man. I can have compassion for her when she was a child, but she was eventually a monster. Knowing this man, I know that only a monster could do this.
As an aside, I am a liberal, and I’m not sure why someone would assume that Pauline would be a liberal as well. Compassion is hopefully an American quality, and strangely applying it in inappropriate situations, doesn’t seem to have a root in political ideology. Hopefully, Pauline was just making the point about eradicating abuse (something we should all agree with) in a context inappropriate to the topic.
Buddy, if you are out there somewhere, I’m so sorry I could not help you. I will remember you as the wonderful man you were, clean of the evil you were forced into, an embraced by the Lord to whom you raised your voice to in song and love.
Patrick, I am so glad you commented on this. I saw Buddy’s story on Discovery ID (or ID Discovery) recently, and it’s been haunting me. What this woman and her “colleagues” did to such a gentle, trusting soul – I admit, I’m on the fence regarding the death penalty, but I wish they all were executed.
I’m also a liberal, but Buddy’s story, his life, his tragic death – what do love and kindness have to do with being liberal or conservative? I agree with you about “…hopefully American quality…” Compassion should transcend personal philosophies.
I wish I had known Buddy as you did. I’m grateful that he left behind people who remember and miss him.
Fuck that cunt she could have changed and not done that shit!
As the saying goes, an eye for an eye. I hope that prison life was just the same and her childhood life. She and the others picked on an innocent disabled old man, her past life had nothing to do with this. This woman knew right from wrong and thought they’d get away with it. I feel no pity for what her life was like the moment she picked up that innocent man to make money off him. I hope she rots in hell.
But she escaped justice. She tortured this man until death was a kindness, and in return she was given a pass, allowed to leave this Earth and all possibility of Judgement or Punishment. At least she probably suffered a little as the drugs paralyzed her before she lost consciousness. This is why I am against the death penalty. The only people it is applied to that deserve the mercy of a quick death are the ones who were innocent.
Besides, even assuming that she believed in an Afterlife, the only people who send themselves to Hell are those who sincerely believe that they deserve to go there.
I am so sickened by this story it makes every inch of my skin crawl. Coming from tremendous horrors of emotional, mental and sexual violence, you can NEVER become numb by the horrors of others and what they have endured at the hands of people who ARE devoid, disconnected and sadists. I came from a background that should have brought me to a institution for the rest of my life but it did not. I do not claim that I am some great person but I felt such devastation by my childhood violence that I could NOT and would NOT do onto others have as they have done to me. So in response to Ms Price comments about Suzanne, she made a conscious choice on some level to lash out on others in an attempt to ease her own personal suffering at the hands of her family. I DO NOT have contact with my family. I am alone and when I did decide to leave my family on April 19th 2006, it was the scariest and hardest thing to do. However, at this time it is THE best decision I ever made. Granted they were the only family I knew but my safety on every level was in dire dire straits to the point where if I did stay with them I would have either killed myself or they would have killed me especially my mother.
Pain, suffering, trauma or any horror of any kind is NOT an excuse but it does give some history, some background information in understanding how and why someone could do the things they do. Pain fuels every act of malice and brutality known to exist. Love does not fuel it. When we are damaged or traumatized by people and events in our life especially in our early life where we are THE MOST vulnerable and impressionable, it leaves a enormous mark on a person psyche that the pave the way for all sorts of violence. It is the mind’s way of working out its pain and it is largely unconscious. So as people we must have an outlet to express our feelings for we are NOT made to robots and stoic. As a human being we are physically and emotionally vulnerable and there is nothing we can do to change that. It IS our makeup as a human being!!!
If the liberals had got their way, she would have been out of prison and on welfare. They have no problem at all with killing babies, yet have tons of compassion for cold blooded murderers and will do all they can to save THEM! Messed up!
You must be a Trumptard
Hey Ash. I’m SO a Trumptard! And you’re hilarious
I agree. Lol
You must be a Trumptard
You must be a libtard.
Anyone who uses the term “libtard” has zero credibility. In fact, I have to believe it’s a joke because it’s too ridiculous to be serious.
Seriously? It’s the Conservatives who want reduced sentences for rpe and child abuse and other forms of torture, so that there is more room in prison for people who have the wrong skin color or are poor. So disgustingly messed up…
Another liberal lie.
Tim, that’s not fair. I’m a Liberal, and I wish they’d all have been executed- all six of them!
Your comment makes no sense to the topic. Why such anger, lol. I see the caps and the exclamation point there, seriously, this has nothing to do with republican or democrat. This is a monster who killed and innocent man and deserved what she got. I am a democrat and didn’t sit here and think to give her a light sentence and give her welfare. Calm your tits there.
Wrong.
Maybe in Texas she would have gotten off early for killing a mentally disabled man. But Texas is highly conservative.
Hey Ash. I’m SO a Trumptard! And you’re hilarious